Two out-of-date Beijing subway trains arrived in China's quake-hit Sichuan Province on Wednesday. They will serve as makeshift winter housing for locals, according to a newspaper report released Thursday.
In all, 10 trains, composed of six cars each, are now in Guangyuan, a city to the north of the provincial capital Chengdu, Beijing Youth Daily reported.
Seats and rails on the trains were dismantled to make way for two-story sleepers and a passageway. The 10 trains will accommodate a total of about 1,200 people in the area.
Trains were already in use at the Baolun Middle School serving as teachers' dormitories. Another train is housing elderly in Sandui County.
The DK-16 model trains were used on Beijing's loop line No. 2 which is 23.1-kilometer-long, since 1984. They were replaced by the more advanced DKZ-16 models right before the Beijing Olympics, which fell on Aug. 8 this year. Nearly 20 DK16 trains are still running.
The first train to house people was delivered to Sichuan on July 7. Currently, there are no plans to send any more trains to the area.
A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck southwest Sichuan Province and its surrounding provinces killing more than 69,000 people in May. Tens of thousands are still missing.
Millions of quake victims were homeless after the disaster and now live in temporary shelters.
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2008)